Next stop: Loyola University

The Bearcats men’s basketball team hit the road on Thursday night to get to Maryland in advance of Friday night’s game against Loyola University.

Loyola, last season’s Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament champion, returns four players from the starting lineup in its NCAA tournament game in forward Erik Etherly and guards Dylon Cormier, Robert Olson and R.J. Williams.

Assistant coach Ben Luber

Bearcats coach Tommy Dempsey and assistant coach Ben Luber are no stranger to Loyola after being conference rivals at Rider University.

“I think it helps a little bit,” Dempsey said of facing a team he knows well. “It’s a familiar trip for me and for Ben. It’s a familiar style, so it’s pretty easy to get them prepared. At the same time, some of the things that you can’t get them prepared for is the intensity level that they’re going to have to play at. We’re doing out best to create that in practice, but in the first five minutes of the game they’re going to have to figure out that this game is going to be played at a different level. Hopefully we’ll respond positively to that.”

Etherly, a 6-foot-7 225-pound forward, was named to the All-MAAC First Team after averaging 13.7 points per game and 7.5 rebounds per game last season. He earned National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Second Team All-District II honors.

The Bearcats had to enlist some extra bodies to prepare for the season opener. Luber and assistant coach Laz Sims were forced into duty as fill-in players as the Bearcats were somewhat undermanned. Rob Mansell is still not going full-speed and Rayner Moquete did not practice this week after spraining his ankle in Saturday’s exhibition game. Javon Ralling just got reinstated.

Members of the coaching staff needed to coach and play at the same time.

“They shoot too much (laugh). They’ve got to get shots for the other guys,” Dempsey said of the player/coaches while chuckling. “Just having them have the ability to get in there and mix it up, I think more than anything they’re just trying to set an example of this is how you practice every day. This is how hard you have to practice to become a really good player, to become the types of players that they became. It was through a lot of hard work, and we’re just trying to instill that in our young guys.”